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More Sides Now
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on January 31, 2013.]
More Sides Now
Last summer I wrote a BOTH SIDES NOW column here with a “point / counterpoint” discussion of a number of local hot-button issues raised in the Voice and elsewhere. Let’s do it some more…
Roosevelt Project
Point: I never see anybody working on Roosevelt Boulevard. That project probably won’t be finished until after I’m dead. And why didn’t they tell us how much trouble it was going to be?
Counterpoint: Ain’t armchair quarterbacking fun? The TRUTH of the matter is that the project is ON SCHEDULE. Just because YOU don’t see them doing what YOU think they should be doing doesn’t change that. They’re proceeding according to their plan – a plan that they very much DID make well known to anyone who bothered to listen. (more…)
Dept of Environmental Rejection
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on January 17, 2013.]
Dept of Environmental Rejection
In the 1970s, riding the wave of environmental enlightenment as the nation woke up to the escalating damage from rampant development and profiteering, Florida established its Department of Environmental Regulation (FDER) — formed from various other agencies, including the Department of Air and Water Pollution Control (established by Florida’s FIRST Republican governor) and the Bureau of Sanitary Engineering. By the 1990s it included oversight of Florida’s water management districts, and was retitled Department of Environmental Protection. Our DEP was one of the largest such protection agencies in the nation, and took its responsibilities toward our quality of life and our very future quite seriously.
Even under Florida’s next Republican governor, Jeb Bush, the DEP diligently maintained its role as the protector of our state’s precious resources, (more…)
Journey Through The Past
KONK REACTOR column
[Published in the KONK Life newspaper on January 3, 2013.]
Journey Through The Past
Happy New Year and all that jazz…. Wow, 2013! Far out. Early Beatlemania is now longer ago than all of WWI was in those days. Time marches on… Hey, while in the retro mindset, I think I’ll look over my last year of KONK Life columns (about 18,000 words-worth)….
After introducing myself, I quickly jumped into Key West local issues with a warning about the ill effects of widening our ship channel to support bigger cruise ships. This issue ended up so hot that our City Commission punted it back to the voters, which will happen this coming year. Note that in a later column I clarified that we need not fear the ships themselves…
Other local-issue columns detailed impacts (more…)